Cauliflower Pizza???

A friend of mine just posted a link to this recipe on Facebook. It sounds like it could be delicious. I'm thinking of making the breadstick recipe later this week or even trying the pizza. I thought it would be good topped with some grilled veggies - peppers, onions.....garlic....

Anyway - thought I'd pass it along since they looked like semi-healthy recipes. I think you could even try adding egg beaters instead of egg, and using the part skim mozerella cheese. And if you did make it into pizza you'd want to be careful how much more cheese you added to it - to keep the fat content down enough. I'll let you know if I end up trying it. My friend who made it said that it was pretty good and she couldn't even taste the cauliflower. She said she hates cauliflower and the pizza was still pretty good.

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Wild Idea

Ok fam! Aunt Tammy has this idea that she got from her daughter in law, Kori, this past month. We don't always post on the Ellis sight, me especially, but if all of us try just a little harder this year, we could publish a book for Grandpa and Grandma Ellis for Christmas this year! Actually, I think Stef has something in mind and we could do the book for next year! I am starting it with my own blog but Kori's turned out so awesome, I thought this would be good for Grandpa and Grandma. Let me know what all of you think.

Chalice, glad to hear things are looking up. I was wondering about you with your family's jobs and being Relief Society president. Stef thanks for your updates and it was sooooooo fun to run into Shawnee last Saturday! I loved it!



A thought for all of us today--
When God makes a promise to you, He has every intention of fulfilling it.

New Moms and update

Wow...we seem to have a whole bunch of new moms! Bonnie and Natalie both had their babies this last week within a few hours of each other....let's see Bonnie's is Paige Margo, and Natalie's is Reagan....not sure if I spelled any of them right. I hear that Aspen had her baby this morning and named her Taylor. That's Girls 3 Boys 0. congrats to the new moms!

We have been keeping busy around here! I don't write often because I feel like there isn't anything newsworthy---but that really isn't the intention of our blog..it's to keep in touch!! So...let's see...an update on US...even if it IS boring...some of you haven't seen us in awhile and it may be new news to you . lol. !!! Garrin is hard at work at the shop which is going really well. We hired our first employee 4 months ago and that's been going well. He's been really busy except last week for some reason. I've been working at my job.....not loving it lately...but it's getting better. Still doing the books for the shop and trying to keep up with the kids.

Shawnee made the Ballroom dance team for next year and will be a senior! She's so excited! She is having her performance from Ballroom class next weekend. She has been so so so busy and has been really stressed about school this year. She'll be taking 2 classes in packets this summer to free up some time next year so it won't be so stressful. Kaylee will also be doing a couple of packets to free up her schedule. We hardly see Shawnee between early morning Ballroom class, school, work, Youth Conference committee, YCL for Camp, Laurel president...and the occasional friend or two. Kaylee just finished up track---running the 400 and the 4x400 relay. She did great. She loves all the drama classes (like her cousin chalice) and we just went to her drama performance of scenes from Shakepeare. She's a go-er too. Jaycee just did Hope of America..which was made up of 5th graders from schools all over the area. We met at BYU at the Marriott center and they made up an American flag with their shirt colors and sang patriotic songs. It was cool. She is growing up fast. Devin is home and has been going to UVU for the past year. He is relieved that school is over for now and is starting full time work tomorrow. He continues to date Kiera and is also always on the go.

So that is us in a nutshell. Not exciting...but at least you know what we're up to these days. One of these days I'll have something exciting to share. (i hope) If not---you'll just keep getting these boring updates. lol Anyone else have updates? Boring or not!

Back to work I go. . .

So as most of you know, our family has been recovering from unemployment this past year. When Jhonny decided to become a teacher, I knew things would be tough financially. I felt like this was a good decision for him anyway. It has been a good year for him. I've been working as much as possible as a substitute and homebound teacher which has been good, but not without it's sacrifices.
It's been a year since I've had health insurance and Jhonny's insurance was not really useful either. So the more I prayed about our situation, the more I felt like the only option was for me to go back to work for real. I have already been gone almost full time anyway - but not really being compensated for my time the way I could be.
So I tried interviewing last year in some places, but the situation was never right. Last week I had two really good interviews. One was for a fourth grade teaching position here in town. I felt really good about it. And I would have been happy even though I couldn't understand why I would have been so impressed to go get my masters in counseling if I was just to return to the classroom anyway. But, I felt good about it.
Before the school could get back to me with a decision, I got another call. Round Rock High School's lead counselor called and asked if I'd accepted a job yet. I told her not exactly, but that one was on it's way. She pleaded with me to wait until at least they could interveiw me on Friday. I said, "Okay," knowing that the process from the school here would take longer to get back to me than that. Then by the tone in her voice, I knew I needed to make a decision before the interview if an offer would come and for some reason I felt that it would.
Wow- what a difficult choice to make! Be here close to home and in my daughter's school or travel an hour to and from work and do what I love in a much higher paying district. I started to see some things that I hadn't considered before. If my daughter goes to the elementary down the street, that would be 2 hours of lone time with her each day. The Round Rock hospital is down the street from the school. I don't really know how that would play a part later, but it could be important. This may be the window of opportunity for my children to go to a school district where opportunities are available to them that are not available here in Rockdale - something I have been frustrated about.
Then my nanny said she had felt impressed that by next fall she needed to get an apartment of her own and move out to Round Rock. The thing holding me back was time away from my baby, Gavin. Lily will be attending preschool with her dad next year so I wasn't worried about her. Then the thought came to me that if I were to put him in a day care where my Nanny could get a job, she might be able to afford an apartment of her own and I would know my son was in good hands closer to where I was working. Hmm. It could work and she got excited about the idea.
So, I decided that if I were offered the job, I had better take it or I might not get another opportunity like this.
The interview went AWESOME. I got along really well with the lead counselor. We went throught he same graduate program - cohort with Sam Houston State Univ. with Dr. Judy Neslon - my mentor and professor. She asked if I knew her. I said, "Not only do I know her, worked with and I have a letter of recommendation from her in your hands." She was sold.
The principal was great too. Just the kind of administrator I could work for. They said I could expect to hear from him next week. 30 minutes after the interview, I got a call offering me the job.
I held off for an hour so I could call Jhonny and check in with him. Of course he said,"yes."
When I got home, I checked into things a little more only to discover I had been off on the pay scale and I would actually get 4000 more than I thought. I also discovered that the insurance is probably the cheapest and best in the state for educators. Wow!
I feel so blessed. It has been a long year pinching pennies and trying to stay healthy. I'm feeling relief more than anything and grateful. This job feels like a miracle right now.